SOULLESS JUNCTION
by TEKNAM
Summary: Trial 1shot; X-over of Den-O and Soulless. One minute, she was sitting, calmly reading. The next, she found herself wrapped up in an intrigues with a brand new type of monster... a monster made of time. Alexia Terrabotti must now don the mantle of a Kamen Rider in order to protect her timeline from the Imagin... with help from a red Imagin ... Powerful!Alexia, no pairings yet.


[A/N]: Hey everyone, coming at ya with another REALLY odd combination. I recently picked up the manga-adaption of Gail Carriger's book "Soulless", a part of the soon-to-be-complete five-part "Parasol Protectorate" series. The main character is, as the title implies, soulless, and able to negate the physical mutations and powers of the supernatural through physical contact. I went to sleep the night I read it and… for as strange as it sounds, this idea came to me COMPLETELY in a dream. I actually WATCHED this entire concept play out in my dream…

Therefore if you are a fan of "Soulless" I hope you enjoy the little mash-up I have planned for you… and I pray for your sake that you REALLY enjoy insanity. To those who are fans of the other half of this insane cross-over… please don't tear into me for what I'm about to do to one who is easily one of the most hilarious characters in history… at least in my books, anyway. ^^; So again, regardless of your fandom, please enjoy! ^_^

P.S.: A certain character is going to be a little OOC for the majority of this fic, so if you don't like it when you read it, don't stick around. The last thing I want is flames screaming at me about how the character being OOC ruined the story for them. Therefore, with that being said, for a time, anything spoken in Japanese will be written like this: _("")_. If you're confused… just read on. ^_^

Anything spoken in Japanese will be translated in post-script at the end of the chapter.

In addition, since nothing in the way of a confirmable year for a setting, I'm basing this roughly around the year 1856. Don't say I didn't warn you. [A/N]

_**SOULLESS X KAMEN RIDER DEN-O CROSSOVER  
SOULLESS JUNCTION: A CHRONICLE OF VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, AND IMAGIN  
OP: "SCANDALOUS BLUE~DEAD END Re-SYNC STYLE" - ACCESS**_

A vast ballroom where music played and people danced in slow circles.

A large library that was silent enough for those who favored quiet.

There were simply too many people and too much noise.

That was the thought going through the young woman's head as she stepped through the large, creaky wooden doors of the house's library with a cup of herbal tea and a plate with treacle tart in one hand, while holding a book under her other arm and carrying a parasol in her free hand. Setting the cup and plate on the nearby table, the woman sat down on the couch ahead of her, using one hand to reach for her book and flip it half-way open while the other held onto her parasol, leveling the point into the floorboards.

The house was lovely, by all standards. Many people she'd encountered at this ball were quite ecstatic and only too enthusiastic when it came to praising the building and the architect responsible for its construction.

However, this woman couldn't care less for the house as a whole. She didn't care about its architect, or even what kind of mud the builders had used in the mortar used to construct the foundation. She didn't even care about the bricks that held the building together from the outside. For all accounts, this woman preferred a good book… and more than anything, she preferred solitude.

Even now, sitting on this couch, she wished she could just be alone and vanish. Unfortunately, she could sense two presences approaching. One was coming from behind her and was taking their time; bless the poor, fledgling vampire's heart… he must have wanted her to have a few more peaceful moments before he drained her dry. If only he knew it wouldn't work out the way he intended it to.

The second presence was the one that worried her. This was coming in fast and had been unnoticed by the vampire behind her… but what worried her most was that this one was approaching FROM ABOVE HER. In fact, it was highly uncomfortable for her to know this. It was almost as if they were speeding out of thin air from a point about three feet above her head…

It is important to know that the only reason this woman knew that the being behind her was a "vampire" was because of her own heritage. She was a preternatural, a being born between the worlds of the natural and the supernatural.

SHE WAS A BEING WITH NO SOUL.

This woman, Alexia Terrabotti, age twenty-six, was a spinster, a woman who hadn't married before the age of twenty. It wasn't from a lack of trying that she hadn't been married yet… she just had no interest in men at the time. This left her mother and sisters, all of whom were the majority of her annoyance at home, annoyed and worried. She couldn't care less… Right now, and for most of the rest of her life, she had to worry about her survival more than finding a husband.

And, as the saying once went, "There is no room for men on a woman's battlefield."

She had barely enough time to move aside, however, when, out of sheer curiosity and nothing else, she directly up in time to see a small rip appear in the air above her, shaped like the slit in a lizard's eye and rapidly changing colors. Without warning, a well-sized man fell from the hole and landed on her lap with a soft thud and a groin of pain from both.

The man rolled toward the back of the couch, still on top of Alexia, and completely oblivious to the fact that, in his attempt to find the cushion and push himself off, he'd absent-mindedly grabbed her breast instead. This didn't sit well with Alexia at all. Moving as fast as she could to save what dignity she had left, she threw the man off of her, sending him flying into the table. In the act of trying to regain his balance, he knocked over her cup of tea, sending it spilling across the tabletop… and wound up face-first in her treacle tart.

Slowly rising off the table and dusting himself off, the man turned around and, in a coarse voice, mumbled, _("Nazesorehaitsumo watashi desuka?"__1__)_ Alexia stared at the man, completely confused.

She couldn't understand a WORD he was saying.

She couldn't really help it; he was speaking in a foreign language. As she thought for a moment, she focused her senses to locate the vampire, only to find he'd backed off into the shadows. If the soft snickers and giggles were any hint, the soon-to-be-unlucky vampire was enjoying the show.

Turning her attention back to the man before her, she studied him briefly. He was tall, roughly six feet tall, maybe slightly more, and was lean, but muscular. His face was hard, as if chiseled from stone… but it seemed whoever had sculpted his face had forgotten to make him smile. He wore an unimpressed scowl on his face, which, along with his pure-red hair, eyebrows and … eyes, made him look quite frightening.

In addition, the suit he was wearing made him look like a gang leader; the sleeve cuffs were tore off, leaving jagged edges around his wrists. There was also the color of his attire… his suit jacket and pants were a bright crimson, while the dress shirt under the jacket was bright red. The bowtie he wore was, as with the jacket and pants, a shade of bright crimson, while his dress shoes were bright read.

Working up all the indignation she could, she adopted a scowl almost as mean-looking as the man's and shouted, "HOW DARE YOU?" The man stared at her, his expression changing from that scowl to a look of total befuddlement.

Once again, the man opened his mouth to speak, but spoke in a language she couldn't comprehend:

_("Anataha naniwo itsutta no? Ore haanatawo rikai surukotohadekimasen!"__2__)_ He said, slapping himself in the head as he realized she couldn't understand him.

Alexia found herself at an impasse; with no way to communicate, she couldn't ask him who he was, where he was from, and most importantly, why he'd tried to seduce her.

Meanwhile, the man had turned around, closed his eyes, and started thinking. He normally didn't think much, as it tended to seriously hurt his head when he did.

_('Come on, think! Damn it this hurts… what can I do to make her understand me? Wait… it worked in that anime show I watched with the others… maybe I can make it work here… I'll probably get slapped for it, but it's a price I have to pay!")_ The man thought, turning on his heels. Alexia looked up to see him, but, as before, she wasn't fast enough to stop him.

With little more warning that a sudden step forward, the man grabbed her by the shoulders and tackled her back onto the couch. Then, before she could say anything, the man leaned down and planted his lips to hers.

Alexia stiffened, the sudden action catching her completely off-guard. However, what scared her wasn't the fact that he'd basically forced her down and kissed her… it was the fact that when he tried to move his tongue into her mouth, she didn't resist of fight back. Instead, it felt like something in her head was telling her to let him in. And so she did, allowing their tongues to perform a quick dance for the span of several seconds. When he finally pulled away, Alexia found herself overheating.

'_How can this be happening to me?'_ Alexia thought as she reached a hand up to her face and felt the heat in her cheeks, _'that was my first kiss… how could I let a man who has yet to court me kiss me? And… worse than that, it… actually felt… good?'_ She slowly sat up when she realized the man had released her. He got off the couch and stood up, his face looking anxious.

She stood up, albeit on shaky legs. She could barely look at this man; she quickly turned away and covered her face with her hands in shame.

However, the voice that met her ears moments later sounded… pleasant.

"My deepest apologies for the sudden intrusion of your privacy, dear lady," the man said, "I understand this will sound entirely ludicrous to your ears, but… for as odd as this sounds, I had no other choice. I could not conceive of any alternative method of being capable of speaking to you in your native language. Therefore, please, if you still feel violated, strike me until you are satisfied. I willingly accept any punishment you can imagine."

Alexia turned around to see the man had gotten on his hands and knees and had bowed his head to the floor. She found it odd that only a moment ago, his voice had sounded like grave beneath the wheels of a carriage. Where it had sounded like he had a hoarse throat before, he now sounded… like a proper gentleman. His voice still held a bit of that gravelly, coarse tone in it, but for the most part, he sounded subdued and sincerely apologetic.

Alexia found herself amazed that any man in this day and age would go to such lengths as getting on all fours to ask forgiveness for a… stolen kiss. She looked to her side and, seeing her parasol, picked it up in one hand.

'_Oh my… he is so honest… how moving!'_ she thought, a small smile creeping across her face.

Walking over, she offered him her hand to stand and said, "Come now, sir, there is little need for this level of apology. While the fact may be that you have effectively stolen my first kiss, I can forgive you. And believe me when I say… I have head stranger things than "I needed to kiss you to learn your language", for as strange as that sounds." Looking up, the man nodded, holding a solemn expression on his face. He took her hand and slowly stood.

However, no sooner was he on his feet than she sent him right back into the floor courtesy of a blow to the head with her parasol. With a straight face, she slung the innocent-looking weapon across her shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I… I deserved that… truly, I did," the man said, slowly standing up. Alexia walked over and sighed again.

"Seeing as there was a lack of understanding earlier, I will forgive you also for not promptly answering my query. So, if I might be so bold as to ask… what is your name? Where did you come from? And, more importantly… what are you?" she asked, raising her defenses slightly when he tensed at her last question. However, she relaxed a bit more as he calmed and regained his composure.

"I will have to… Please wait a moment, I'm finding this manner of speech very hard on my throat," the man said, curling his hand into a fist and punching himself in the side of the head.

"MY GOD! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Alexia asked. She counted herself lucky that no one outside the room had heard; the music had started JUST before she shouted, so she was almost guaranteed no one would hear her.

The man turned around and, much to Alexia's shock, said, "Yeah, I'm just freakin' great. Nothing' sets your brain straight like a good, freight-train-strength punch in the freakin' head!" The man's scowl from earlier returned.

And Alexia could have sworn she saw the man's eyes flash red.

"Ah, hold on, you probably can't understand me that well. Hold on one second…" he said, reaching his right hand to her held. He curled his hand so that only his index and middle fingers were raised, pressed them together, and placed them to Alexia's left temple. One half-turn to the right and the man removed his hand.

"What the hell was that for? You better not have ruined my hair, or I'll… Wait, what's going on? I'm ACTUALLY saying whatever I'm thinking?" Alexia said, slightly concerned. The man nodded.

"Yeah, we'll have to work that part of this fiasco out later. Right now, I should… WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!" The man yelled, whipping around and catching the hidden Vampire by the neck as he leapt from the shadows, aiming for Alexia's neck. With one turn, the man spun on his heel and released the vampire form his grip, sending him through the open window.

Turning back to Alexia, he nodded and said, "In order to answer your questions, I'll have to jump around a bit," The man said, "To start with, I'll tell you what I am. I am a being called an Imagin, a being born of the sands of time that either grants wishes to weak-hearted humans in order to travel through time and destroy the past, or else work alongside special humans to protect time. As it is, I'm in the latter group."

"You see, in several thousand years, the human race is set to evolve into several new forms, many of which involve giving up one's humanity in a different degree. The more you give up, the more destructive and evil you get. As it is, we Imagin only gave up half of our humanity in order to exist outside of time. The trouble is, when we evolved, we were sent to the year 13,750 to reside. That time is now destroyed entirely, thus the more destructive of my kind coming back to destroy YOUR past in order to return us to our own. I don't get the logic there, but still," The man said. Here, Alexia stopped him.

"Wait wait," she said, "So you're telling me that some time in the distant future, IF I or someone like me is still alive, we'll have to give up our humanity to survive?" The man nodded.

"Exactly; like I said though, Imagin like me only gave up half. Those that entirely gave it up became more bloodthirsty and evil. And despite all this, some people were unable to cast away their humanity, so they had to use weird objects to become something completely different altogether."

"In terms of my time, I operate mainly out of the year 2006. As I said earlier, the only way for me to fight my own kind is to give my powers to a special kind of human called a "Singularity Point". Singularity Points are humans who exist outside of the timeline, and are able to reject an Imagin when they possess them, unless that Imagin was somehow created or "born"," here the man made finger quotes around the word "born", "in the same year they were."

"In terms of the act of "possessing" a Singularity Point, an Imagin simply has to assume the form of a ghost-like creature and enter the human's body. The act, however, leaves the human's body under the Imagin's control, and several changes occur. The Imagin within influences all hair color, eye color, personality, and the way the person dresses. In my case, my color is red, as you can no doubt see," The man said. Alexia nodded, still struggling to make sense of it all. The man sighed.

"Should I use smaller words?" He asked, almost condescendingly. Alexia's temper flared for a moment, and she slapped him across the face.

"You DARE condescend to me! You were groping my breasts not even ten minutes ago, when you popped out of that hole in the air!" Alexia snarled, turning sharply on her heel. The man rubbed his cheek tenderly, wincing at the stinging sensation. Suddenly, his face gained a look of shock.

"Wait… That STINGS? How the…" With that, the man rushed to a mirror that was hanging on the back of the door. The next thing Alexia heard was an ear-shattering scream of disbelief. Turning around quickly, she saw him patting himself down.

"What's wrong? Is something broken?" she asked.

"N-No… I HAVE A HUMAN BODY!" He said in shock. Alexia gave him a look.

"Well of course you do, that's how you appeared when you LANDED ON ME," she retorted, still sore with him.

The man looked at her in disbelief and said, "You don't understand; an Imagin isn't supposed to be able to TAKE a human form EVER! The most we're allowed to do is possess a Singularity Point and "borrow" their body! The fact that I have one means that… Wait a minute, what year is this?" Alexia stared him in the eyes, as if he were crazy.

"This is March 3rd, 1856. We've barely started spring. Why?" she asked, worried that she might actually be in the presence of a lunatic. The man slapped his forehead.

"That explains everything. I wasn't supposed to enter that Time Portal in My Imagin body… the presence of two Imagin must have thrown everything out of whack!" he man said, pacing back and forth nervously.

"Wait… You said you're from the year TWO-THOUSAND-AND-SIX, right?" Alexia asked, her mind finally processing what the man had told her. He nodded.

"Yep… There's no doubt about it… I'm one-hundred-and-fifty years in the past…" the man said. Alexia stared at him as if he were an alien.

"Oh, wait… I never told you my name…" the man said, just before a sudden twinge struck the center of his mind. He closed one eye tightly, half-closed the other, held his head between his hands and collapsed to one knee. Alexia saw this and knelt down.

"Are you alright?" she asked. He nodded.

"I don't get it… There should only be TWO of us here… how am I sensing ANOTHER Imagin?" he asked aloud. He looked Alexia in the eyes with an apologetic gaze and sighed.

"Sorry for this… But I have to take that guy down!" He said, his body vanishing into nothing. Alexia stood up, frightened, looking around frantically for her new acquaintance. The man was behind her, as nothing more than the red outline of a mask-headed being with two large horns on his head. The ghostly apparition flew towards Alexia's body and entered it.

One moment, Alexia was busy scouring the room for the total stranger, the next she felt a pressure in her back and threw her head back with a gasp. When she lowered her gaze, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the back of the door and ran over. Taking a good look at herself, she realized what had happened: She'd been possessed.

Alexia's hair was now free of the single pin she'd used to keep it tied behind her head, and had shrunk back to end at the junction of her head and neck. Not only that, but it had gotten extremely messy; she looked like she'd just woken up from a horrible nightmare. She noticed the presence of a single streak of red snaking its way from the left side of her head all the way to the back. Speaking of her neck, she looked herself up and down and gasped in astonishment.

She did a single spin in front of the mirror, almost admiring the change to her dress; what had once been a simple green dress with poufy, detached half-shoulders was now a piece to behold: the shoulders had extended all the way up to her neckline and down to rest halfway between her elbows and wrists. The dress' non-existent neckline had spiked around the back, ending in a sort of head-rest with a large spike that reached to the center of the back of her head, as well as two smaller spikes off each shoulder that reached up to meet the center one at equal angles. The dress continued down to her knees, where it tapered off in a lacy skirt. The entire thing was striped, with interchanged lines of black and crimson all over.

Her hands were now covered off in long, elegant gloves that extended to JUST past the ends of her dress' sleeves and were held in place by red velvet bows. Her legs, from mid-thigh down to her feet, were covered off in red stockings, and her green high-heeled shoes had been replaced by a pair of sleek-looking black shoes that lacked the long heels, but still made her look impressive. A small pendant that looked like a stylized peach hung around her neck by a gold chain, while an earring bearing a similar emblem hung from each ear.

Despite all this, the most striking change Alexia found with her appearance was in her eyes: her deep, brown eyes now had a thick ring of red around the pupil that seemed to burn like fire.

"What on earth?" She asked. She reached down to check the dress, only to notice the sudden presence of a garish silver belt around her waist that didn't mesh well with her dress at all. The thing was thick and had a strange-looking buckle; the thing was rectangular in shape with a round, silver one-piece buckle. On the left side was a small blue arrow in a black patch; that must have been the side that connected to the buckle. On the right side was a red connector, and next to it, in a small panel, were four button of varying colors; one was red, another blue, another yellow, and the last purple.

In the center of the buckle was a large area with a black background. There were two connecting prongs on the left side, set at diagonal angles, which would have connected with two more on the right side, if those weren't already connected to each other in a right-angle with an extended metal brace from the higher of the two connectors. On the right side of the belt itself, was a small holder that looked like it should hold a set of cards.

"_**Looks like you're getting the hang of it pretty quickly, eh?"**_ the man's voice echoed in her head. She whipped around, looking for him.

"Sir? Where did you wander off to? Why are you hiding from me?" Alexia asked aloud, suddenly realizing she was speaking in her original pattern again. That wasn't all… she could swear she was imagining it, but something about her body seemed… different.

"_**I'm not hiding… not really. I simply … BLAST IT ALL!"**_ he suddenly shouted in her head, causing her to flinch, _**"I have returned to that accursed throat-sore manner of speaking! Agh… that is less important than the matter at hand. May I ask your name, before we begin our little hunt?"**_ Alexia nodded.

"My name is Alexia Terrabotti. And as you were kind enough to explain your origins to me, I will tell you my own: I am preternatural. I have no soul within my body, so the powers of the supernatural are useless when used against me. Vampires and werewolves that attempt to touch me will find their powers negated for as long as they retain physical contact with me," Alexia explained.

"_**Well, I do say… that explains why I cannot fully possess your body… It seems you're more than you thought, Miss Alexia,"**_ the man said, _**"I would only have been capable of possessing you if you were a Singularity Point… which, apparently, you most certainly ARE. That fact and the fact that you are preternatural in nature will surely work to both our advantages. I shall explain further soon… before we set out, I must ask… do you trust that I have been truthful to you to this point, and that I will not steer you wrong from here on?"**_ Alexia nodded.

"I trust you, Sir. Tell me what I need to do, and I'll help you protect my time!" she said. The man chuckled a bit.

"_**Very well, then; I must humbly request that you do EXACTLY as I say, and nothing else until we find a more private place to converse. For now, find a way to keep that belt from being seen. If the target of our search sees it before we find him, he will certainly flee, and we may never find him,"**_ the man said. Alexia nodded and slowly shimmied in the belt, pulling her dress up a little higher until there was a good three-inch overhang that covered the belt entirely. She looked in the mirror and found that her skirt now rested almost mid-thigh. This was more provocative than she was used to seeing, but then, so was her entire outfit.

"_**If you are concerned that certain folks may recognize you, I can will into existence a small mask to cover your face. Would that ease your worries?"**_ the man asked. Alexia nodded with a sigh. She closed her eyes for less than a second. When she opened them again, she was pleasantly surprised.

Upon her face rested a small, red mask the likes of which she'd never seen before. The entire thing revolved around a small patch of silver, which resembled a mouth guard with a silver rod on either side of her mouth, while a small silver brace appeared under each eye, supporting two large red extensions that bulged outward to one side and almost stuck to her face. Both of these extensions reminded her of half of a peach, and had a small, triangular point at the end, suspended in mid-air by two small silver bars. In the center of the two extensions were holes that matched perfectly with the positions of her eyes, and the mouth guard area was open to allow her the ability to breath.

"_**It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but that's the best I can do for you. The holes in the eye areas can be closed just by thinking it, as can the area around your mouth. When you close the eyes, so to speak, you will be capable of seeing what normal people would be unable to see, while the mouth guard will not only block out harmful gasses and liquids, like poisons, but will also change your voice as you speak so that no one will be able to know who you are unless you've personally shown them its effect,"**_ the man explained. Alexia nodded.

"What must I do now?" she asked, closing the holes in the eyes as well as the mouth guard.

"_**Go back out into the ball downstairs,"**_ the man said,_** "I understand if the noise disturbs you, but this is of utmost importance. The man you are looking for will have sand flowing from his sleeves and pant legs. He will most likely also have it flowing discreetly from his collar. What you need to do is locate him and take to a more remote location without giving away our intents. His Imagin cannot know what we are planning, or he will run."**_ Alexia nodded and, taking a deep breath, opened the door to the library.

Calmly stepping out and descending the stairs, Alexia noticed the sudden lack of noise. The music continued to play, but the constant hum and buzz of the ball-goers had died completely as she stepped onto the stairs. She suddenly felt the eyes of EVERY present patron on her, looking her up and down. She began to get slightly discouraged.

"_**Do not let them deter you, Miss Alexia,"**_ the man said, _**"you have to continue the search. This Imagin cannot be allowed to escape!"**_ Alexia nodded to herself and gathered her courage as she continued descending the stairs to the floor below. Keeping an air of dignity about her, she began idly scanning through the throngs of people to find the presence she needed.

Soon enough, both she and her mystery tenant came to the same conclusion as she set their eyes on a single man:

"_**THERE HE IS!"**_

The man in question looked like a normal man, but Alexia knew better; his presence was that of the vampire fledgling her mystery tenant had thrown out the open library window not fifteen minutes prior. If anything, the fact that he did, indeed, have sand flowing rapidly and in large volumes from his shirt cuffs, which were at his sides, was a dead giveaway. The man asked Alexia if she needed help, but she politely turned him down, saying she had the situation in hand.

Setting her eyes on the man ahead, she walked over calmly and slid up next to the young vampire, resting along his arm as she said aloud, "My good sir, How could you abandon a young woman so soon after making her acquaintance? Have you no manners? We simply MUST continue our discourse from the library!"

However, as she slid closer to his ear, she whispered, _"I wish to speak with you in private. Is there anywhere we could possibly go that is outside of this building?"_ The young man gave her a confused look. Alexia smiled behind the mask and opened the holes in the eyes and the mouth guard.

"You do not remember me? How sad! We just met not fifteen minutes prior! You remember, do you not? I was talking to nice gentleman in red… and you walked in and requested to join our conversation?" Alexia drawled, hoping for a response. This got a reaction out of the man. He simply smiled.

"Why, OF COURSE I remember you! How could any man forget eyes as stunning as yours? Absolutely, follow me! I shall show you a nice, private place to continue our talk from earlier!" the vampire said, rather flamboyantly, as Alexia smiled and reformed her mask. The vampire led her outside and into an alley several houses away, where, as soon as she was in the darkness, she was met with force.

With little warning, the vampire grabbed her wrists and jerked them above her head, holding them out of the way. She struggled to break free, but found she couldn't. The vampire smiled wickedly.

"Did you really think you could fool me, madam?" he said, his voice drenched with sarcasm, "I knew your identity the moment you spoke of the Man in Red! Where did he run off to, hmm? Surely nowhere close enough to save you this time!"

Alexia continued to struggle as the man reared a leg back and kicked her in the leg. She hissed in pain before that same leg shot up from the ground and planted itself square in her stomach, knocking the wind clear from her lungs. However, doing this caused the dress covering the belt to lift, and, seeing it, the vampire released her hands. With no more support to hold her upright, Alexia fell to her knees, gasping hard from breath.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THIS IS MY FAULT? YOU INFORMED ME THAT THE PERSON BEARING THAT ACCURSED BELT WOULD BE A **MALE!** NOT ONLY IS **SHE** CLEARLY **FEMALE**, BUT YOU WISH TO PIN THE BLAME FOR THIS ON ME? YOU ARE THE ONE AT FAULT, SIR!" The vampire shouted, seemingly at no one. He shook his head and rounded on Alexia, just in time for a stream of garbage and waste to fall on him from a window several floors up on the house behind him. Alexia looked up and, against her better judgment, began giggling to herself.

From above, a feminine voice shouted down, "WOULD YOU RABBLE KEEP THE NOISE DOWN? SOME OF US MORE GENTLE FOLK ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!" With that, the sound of a window closing met Alexia's ears, and she knew what had to be done.

The vampire managed to wipe enough of the garbage out of his face and lunge at her, managing to tear off a clump of her brown hair from her right side.

"_**In case you are wondering,"**_ the man said, _**"YES, killing him now would be justifiable as self-defense. End him post-haste!"**_ Not needing any further prompting, Alexia pulled the hairpin form her hair, and, despite her disbelief that it was still there to begin with, ducked under an over-handed swing of the vampire's clawed hand and drove the pin into his chest, just above his heart. Hopping off her feet as the vampire attempted a leg sweep, she struck out with one foot, slamming the heel of her shoe into the end of the hairpin with enough force to drive it through the vampire's heart, killing him instantly. Alexia landed in a crouch, standing slowly, as if to test the water for danger.

"That, I believe is one crisis averted!" Alexia said with a smile as she slid the mask up to rest in her wild, unruly hair and turned to walk off. However, a sudden pull In her mind told her something was tragically amiss.

"_**As the saying goes, the opera does not end until the fat lady sings. And, I am most sorry to say, the old, fat witch of the opera has yet to sing for this one. LOOK!"**_ the man said in her mind. Alexia turned on her heels and watched as, with a shudder and a sudden explosion of sand, a being composed entirely of sand rose from the stiff corpse. As it fully formed, Alexia saw it taking the form of a small, black bird… a raven.

The creature began to take a more humanoid form, a pair of sharp, bladed wings erupted from its shoulder-blades, quickly folding along its back. The beast's torso soon formed, sporting two small chest plates, one of which was covered in a coating of what appeared to be feathers. The shoulders were covered off in small, round guards that hung off and fused into the bases of his wings. In place of its left hand was a large lantern adorned with a skull, and in its right hand was a large sickle. Its legs were mostly covered off, save for the left leg, which had a patch of fabric torn away to show patches of silver-tinted armor covering the flesh.

The backs of its arms were covered in large feathers, and its feet each had three talon-like blades on them. The beast's head had three large feathers protrusing from it, styled toward the back and fashioned to resemble horns. Behind the demonic-looking silver mask, which resembled a bird's head and had a small, black beak above the beast's nose, were two venomous, purple eyes that glowed with pure evil.

Alexia took a reflexive step backwards as the beast turned his head sharply to the left until a "pop" was heard.

"**I see you've obtained that cursed Belt. But can you use it, YOU WEAK WOMAN?"** the beast taunted, swinging the sickle in its hand in an attempt to take Alexia's head from head neck. She ducked in the nick of time and turned to run back out of the alley and into the open street, where she'd have more room to move. Unfortunately, this prompted the Raven Imagin to follow her out of the alley, revealing its presence to a group of ball-goers who had just left the ballroom for a little fresh air. With a terrified scream, all three of the patrons ran back inside and slammed the door shut. Alexia thanked whatever god could hear her that there were at LEAST a few intelligent people in the world.

"_**You will have to use the belt and transform to beat this thing,"**_ the man said to Alexia, _**"Open the pocket on the side of the belt and pull out the Pass within. Press the red button, strike a pose, and then swipe the Pass over the buckle while saying "HENSHIN". Trust me, Lady Alexia!"**_

Needing no further prompting, Alexia reached for the pocket and removed from it a small, rectangular object with the same symbol as the belt buckle on one side. Pressing the red button, Alexia tossed the Pass into the air and caught it in her right hand, bending her arm so that the Pass rested, in her hand, just below her lips, while closing her opposite hand's fingers so that only her index and middle fingers were standing. Placing those two fingers together, she aligned her left hand against her right elbow, extending her pinky finger to rest on her right arm. Opening the eyeholes and mouth guard, she showed the Imagin before her a playful smirk and winked.

"HENSHIN!" she shouted, swinging her right arm to swipe the Pass over the buckle. Her arm remained straight, and the pass slid over the buckle at a forty-five-degree angle.

From nowhere, a robotic voice began to announce something in a deep, masculine tone, but seemed to malfunction midway through, glitching several times:

"_**SWORD FO-  
SWORD-  
SWO-SWO-SWORD"**_

A quick whirring sound rang out in the air, almost like a set of gears turning backward at a rapid pace, before the voice came back, settling on a softer, more feminine tone:

"_**RAPIER FORM!"**_

As the Pass moved beyond the buckle, thousands of tiny, splinter-like objects moved outward from the belt, soon reforming onto Alexia's body as a skin-tight combat suit in shades of black, white and silver. A moment later, six pieces of armor descended from nowhere on a translucent set of train tracks, spiraled around her body once, spun several times, and then connected to her torso, two of the plates curving to accommodate for the swell of her bust. Meanwhile, the mask on her face popped through the helmet and attached in full form to the front of her helmet… just before the collective red of the armor plates and the mask lightened to a powdery-pink color.

"_**I say… pale pink? There goes my reputation as a TOUGH Imagin,"**_ the man said, and Alexia could just feel him shaking her head sadly in her mind.

As a small, green light on the helmet flashed thrice, the man said, _**"Alright, you are probably wondering about weapons. On your belt are four small objects that can connect to each other and form various weapons. IN this form, they WOULD have created a sword, but the fact that the form has locked onto your essence means that we are dealing with a different combination. Just act on the first combination that comes to mind."**_ Alexia nodded.

She reached for the two upper parts of her soon to be weapon and tossed them into the air. The Raven Imagin rushed in, trying to stop her from forming a weapon by swinging its lantern-arm and spewing a large spray of fire in her direction. She dodged backward, pulled out the bottom parts, and held them up so the airborne parts fell and connected to them in an "L"-shaped pattern. Alexia reached down and twisted the upper portions downward to rest at forty-five degree angles. The upper portions suddenly curved down, creating a pair of hand guards, while long, thin blades shot from the point where the two parts connected on each.

'_A pair of rapiers…'_ she thought to herself, smiling behind her helmet.

Facing the beast, she did the only thing that came to mind.

Holding her hands out at her sides in a signal that said, "I don't know", she said, "But whether you are prepared or not, HERE I COME!" With the shout of the last three words, she held one blade out behind her, while holding the other close to her chest with her thumb pointed toward her and her index finger pointing at the beast.

With a roar of rage, the Raven Imagin rushed in once more, swinging the lantern to produce fire before swinging his sickle through the flames to add to the potential damage. Given that she had two weapons, Alexia easily blocked the monster's sickle attack before it struck her and lunged her free weapon into the beast's stomach, causing it to stumble back in pain. Not wasting a second, she swung her right-handed blade to strike the foe, and then stabbed with her left.

This continued for several minutes; the beast would attack, Alexia would block, and then counter with three strikes. Finally, she abandoned waiting for it to attack all together and moved, swinging both weapon down to stab into the beast's shoulders, severely injuring it.

Alexia hopped back several steps and took several deep breaths.

"It appears the time has come to finish this, Imagin trash!" she said, following instinct. She took the Pass in hand again and swiped it over the belt once more.

"_**FULL CHARGE!"**_

She held her weapon at waist level for a time, allowing the build-up of electrical energy to cascade into her weapons. When the blades shot off the handles of the rapiers, she knew what to do.

The beast had almost gotten to its feet when Alexia swung her left weapon down, causing the small blade to go crashing through it. It screamed in pain… but mostly because Alexia had followed up with a second slash, then a third and fourth, and finally two stabs that lodged the blades in its belly. The beast groaned, but when it saw the blades in its stomach, it screamed; it knew all too well what was coming, and there was no way to stop it.

Alexia took off on foot, rushing toward the monster at top speed. As she approached the Imagin, she swung her arms downward, causing the blades in the beast's belly to slice down and through its hip joints. When she reached it, she swung upward, causing the blades to raise over the beast's head, and, with one more downward swing, brought both blades crashing through the Imagin's skull, overloading its body with electric current.

Alexia turned and stared into the distance as the Imagin collapsed to its knees, erupting in a massive explosion as it hit the ground face-first. That was the end of the debacle; the Imagin was dead, as was the vampire it had possessed.

The man's crimson essence emerged from Alexia's body, solidifying into his human body as Alexia's armor faded to grey and vanished off her body. Soon, she stood on the road, once more wearing the green dress she'd been wearing before. She sighed; she'd almost gotten used to that interesting little red dress.

The man approached, looking happy.

"How does it feel, to have experienced the power of Den-O for the first time?" the man asked casually. Alexia turned to face him, still short of breath.

"D-Den-O? What is that?" she asked.

"Simply speaking, Den-O is the form and armor you just used to eliminate that rogue Imagin. There will certainly be others like him, so I need to know now: Did you experience any discomfort, or pain of any sort; anything you found odd while fighting?" he asked. This caused something in Alexia's mind to click.

"Actually, yes I did. When you possessed my body, I felt something quite strange; it felt as if my body had gotten much stronger, but also much lighter. Was that you, by any chance?" she asked. The man nodded.

"Indeed," The man said, "When I entered your body, I adjusted a few things in your brain. By altering the speeds and degrees of release for the electrical signals from your brain to your nerves and vice versa, I managed to increase your physical strength, running speed, and physical endurance. I also managed to speed up your reflexes, so you are now able to not only sense threats much more quickly, but you can also perform feats of acrobatic nature that no other human is capable of."

"So… what you are saying is that I'm now stronger, faster, more agile, able to endure more pain… and able to perceive in a way I was unable to previously?" Alexia asked. The man nodded.

"You know…" Alexia said, "You still haven't told me your name."

"AH!" The man said, "OF COURSE! I felt I was neglecting something important… How rude of me."

"**MY NAME… IS MOMOTAROS."**

_THE END FOR NOW…_

[A/N]And there you have it. ^_^

1: This roughly translates to "Why is it always me?" Given how Momo is… yeah. ^_^  
2: This roughly translates to "What did you say? I can't understand you!"

For anyone wondering, look up the Owl Imagin on the Kamen Rider Wiki and read the Raven Imagin's description while looking at the Owl Imagin's picture. Owl was the physical basis for Raven.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip into the wacky world of my head. ^_^ R&R, constructive criticism is welcome and much appreciated. ^_^ [A/N]


End file.
